Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Subject and object pronouns

   1)       We use pronouns in place of nouns. They may be subject (she) or object (her).

   2)       We call I, you, etc. personal pronouns because they refer to 'grammatical persons':

1st person: I, we 2nd person: you 3rd person: he, she, it, one, they

   3)       In English, we must express the subject of a sentence, so we use a pronoun or a noun:

John (or He) is here. Tim and Pam (or They) have arrived. (Not *is here* *have arrived* etc.)

   4)       We do not have singular and plural forms of you. We can say You're right to someone we don't know at all or to someone we know very well, to a child or to an adult.

   5)       We use it to say who someone is: Who's that?- It's our new neighbour, Mr, Groves.

We use he/she/they to give information about someone:

Who's Mr Groves? - He's our new neighbour.

Write: Supply pronouns and underline the words they replace.

1 Your parcel has arrived. .............It .......was delivered this morning.

2 Jane and I have already eaten. .............................had a meal before we left home.

3 Who's that? - ............................'s my mother. Would you like to meet her?

4 Who's Jane Wilson? - ............................'s the woman who's just started working for our company.

5 So you've had a baby! Is ............................a boy or a girl?

6 Whose cat is that? ............................'.s always in our garden.

7 When John comes in, please tell .............................I phoned.

8 If you see Catherine, please give .............................my regards

Subject or object pronoun?

   1)       We often use object pronouns after be: Who is it? - It's me/him/her/us/them.

   2)       We do not use I, she, etc. on their own in answer to questions with Who?. In everyday speech, we use object pronouns: Who told him? - Me/Not me. Or we say: I did// didn't.

   3)       We use object pronouns after as and than: He's taller than me/as tall as me. or we use subject + verb: He's taller than I am/as tall as I am.

Write: Supply suitable pronouns in the following. Alternatives are possible.

1 Who's that? - It's ...me/him/her/us/them…!

2 Who wants to know what we're having for dinner tonight? - .......................................................!

3 Who wants to help me in the garden? - Not............................... !

4 You can invite him to your place. - ............................... ! You must be joking!

5 It was ..............................who told you, not my brother.

6 She's taller than................................ but not as strong as .............................. am.

7 He's more intelligent than ............................... am, but not as good at sports as...............................